Cardinals Unveil New Alternate Jersey, Ozuna’s Sleeve In Jeopardy

Today at eleven, the Cardinals held a press conference at Ballpark Village, and as we all knew, no big free agent was unveiled, but the Cardinals organization made a bold move nonetheless by expanding their uniform repertoire. A hype video, and one Harrison Bader debuted the new jerseys, which will be worn as a road alternate on Saturdays. These uniforms directly parallel the current creme jersey’s the Cardinals wear at home on Sundays. In this regard, they are actually a totally new creation, in that these are not the pullover powder blues of the past. They feature the same red piping as the creme jersey’s, as well as the alternate “St. Louis” text on the front, essentially making them the same other than the new base color. This is an interesting move, as the Cardinals have toyed with the powder blues in the recent past as a throwback. The redbirds wore those jerseys for a time shorter than a decade, running from the 70’s to the 80’s, but remain iconic and ever present in Cardinals lore regardless, and you see tons of people wearing them all over St. Louis. For a quick reminder of what a current day team would look like wearing those original pullover jersey’s, checkout this highly disappointing game they played against the Mariners in 2016.

These look better than I remembered, and I think the tighter fit of these jersey’s are more interesting than the bagginess of jersey pants of contemporary baseball, but as a 24-year-old who was not around for the days of powder blues, I am certainly qualified to speak on this subject in a “back in my day” manner, as well as a “this is how it should be” basis. I am a fan of the movement of players like Tommy Pham Harrison Bader to don the high socks, which I think is a vital element of the Cardinals uniform.

Working our way to these new uniforms, the Saturday home creme jerseys’s should be reflected on. They were instituted into the Cardinals wardrobe in 2013, and have been a beautiful and special part of Cardinals lore ever since we saw Allen Craig running the bases in the World Series in these duds.

So yes, the last time the Cardinals brought in an alternate jersey, it launched them straight into a World Series birth! I’m already getting more excited just thinking about it, imagine Dexter Fowler scoring a huge run via balk or something at Yankee stadium this October as Luke Voit looks on in horror.

Today’s press conference featured Harrison Bader, Kerry Robinson, Ozzie Smith, Bill Dewitt III, and John Mozeliak. Some highlights I gathered: A big inspiration for this move was Kerry Robinson mentioning to Bill that they should bring the jerseys back a little while ago. I imagine that since his playing days Kerry Robinson had become a prominent fashion designer, but it appears he’s just been a scout since that time which is cool, too. Bill Dewitt spoke to the jerseys and invoked Marcell Ozuna, noting that “hopefully Ozuna won’t need to wear the bright yellow or whatever.” Bill also looked to Mo for backup on enforcement on this anti neon policy, to which I will respond by now becoming an even stronger advocate for Ozuna to continue to wear whatever kind of sleeve he darn well pleases. Also a token, “how’s the off season going?” question was thrown at Mozeliak, to which he responded, “Hopefully things happen.”

So yes, the Cardinals have a new alternate jersey they will wear on the road on Saturdays, and it will be the powder blue equivalent of what they currently wear at home on Saturday’s. It will be interesting to see how these new uniforms that combine the past and the present are received by those calling for the more traditional powder blue pullover. This, paired with some big off season acquisitions could mean trouble for the rest of the NL this coming season.

At time of press, there aren’t any photos of a full uniform including pants, but here is the video they presented as well as the beloved Harrison Bader trying on the new jersey.